The vehicle you should of never parted with

The 1966 Pontiac Lemans my dad bought me when i was 17 with the intention of us restoring it, with a straight body, decent interior. It just needed some engine work. I ended up moving to California and dad eventually sold the project car to a friend.
In hindsight i wish i'd just stayed on the homestead and restored the car with dad.......
 
There are two.

1960 Austin A40 Saloon. Had belonged to (first owner) family friend, Dad bought in 67 or 68, and painted body florescent orange, Dad had a friend from work translate "Tijuana Taxi" in Japanese and painted the character on the doors, and we fit sheet metal bucket floor liner, leaving front passenger seat out. Was great to learn to drive, and haul friends around in.

(photo from internet, don't recall source)
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Second was my gold '71 Coupe DeVille. Bought it just out of high school in '75, my first "loan" car.

Pimp daddy.

(photo courtesy of wikipedia)
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Threw a rod a couple years later, and stupid me fixed it cheap instead of right, and ended up selling in 79.

I miss the hell out of that one.

Saw one for sale exactly like it a couple years ago when I took non-normal route home from work, but was gone two days later when I got time to go back and ask about it. Had been for sale for 2 months prior. Ran fine per owner.

Oh well, one day....
 
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I am 25 so I am only on my third car. Sounds cheesy compared to a lot of the classics in this thread but I had a 1999 Honda Civic EX that I had done some work to. It wasn't "riced out" with the body kit, huge wing, and gaudy decals. It was white, with no wing, lowered 2" with black 17" wheels, tinted windows and tinted tail lights. Just a really clean car. But at 20 I had my first baby and the car seat just didn't work in the back seat of that car so I had to sell. I can't say I wish I never parted with it, because circumstances caused me too and I wouldn't trade my little boy for any car.

My dad had a 1969 Camaro SS. White convertible with orange interior and orange racing stripes. That car was why my mom went on a date with him. But by the time he picked her up for the date, he had traded that car for a 1977 Grand Prix. The Camaro would fetch $40k minimum today. He finally has another 69 Camaro SS but not the pace car.
 
1968 Dodge Coronet Convertible, my first car, traded it for a good time one night back in the 80s. ;)
 
Mine was an '88 LX Mustang, coupe. 331 stroker with a ton of work done to it. God I miss that car, but I just needed something a little more practical as an every day driver. Needed better gas mileage and not having a/c in the FL summer is a killer. Some day I'll have another.
 
A simple but good truck, a 91 Chevy S10 Blazer 4 door, 4WD (hey, my first nice truck is my current one, a 03 Silverado single cab 8 ft bed 4WD). Well, the local salvage yards are paying top dollar for scrap metal, and my truck is up for a run to the yard. Yep, it's been sitting rusting in the field since about 2006-7? Anyway, when I bought it for about a grand (actually 1100, the owners told me to get rid of the trailer too), it had 169K on it. At about 225K, the motor went up. After a rebuild, close to 300K the transmission went up. I could have taken it to the transmission shop for a transmission flush, but didn't. Now, it's going to the yard, and the body is in really nice shape. A shame.
 
My first car. 1971 Camaro with 350, headers, three speed manual transmission, four barrel carb (Holley IIRC)....my parents bought it for me when I was 16 years old (1986) from a guy who had built it up quite nice with a fat camshaft and other performance goodies. Not sure what he was thinking with the distributor as I had to replace that pretty quick but overall the car was solid.

I knew very little about cars when I got it but the first thing my father did was buy me a Chilton manual for it, a new bumper jack, a set of jumper cables, and a four way lug wrench. I already had a decent set of tools to stick in there with it.

Wasn't long before I was doing all the maintenance on it. Plugs, wires, filters, oil, adjusting valves.......things like that.

I had that car all through high school until my senior year when I decided that a 71 Camaro was not suitable to my country boy/hunting lifestyle I had a the time and sold it to a soldier for 800.00 bucks. My father had originally talked the guy down from 1500 to 1250.00 when we bought it.

In retrospect, the car was way too fast for a beginning driver. I am fortunate that I never killed myself or anyone else with the speeds I would hit on a daily basis. I went through a lot of tires too....mostly the rear tires.

Good thing I don't have it today. Gas was a buck a gallon back then and I went through the gas like crazy. I bet I got less than 10 mpg in it as I always had the accelerator pressed to the floor.

Hope my 13 year old son doesn't read this.....cause he is NOT going to have a similar experience with his first ride. lol
 
My 1969 Z-28 Camaro or my 1970 LS-6 454 Chevelle SS. Both were street racing terrors in the mid 1970's, especially the Chevelle. The compression was so high on the LS-6 I ran 100/130 octane avgas to get full power out of it. I have seen those same cars go for well into 6 figures on the TV auctions. Both muscle car classics.
 
Most of my cars have died on me, so I wouldn't have wanted to keep them even if they were kind of cool. I still have my Ranger and will keep it as long as I can. The one that I "kind of" wish I'd kept was a 1995 Geo Prizm. With a five speed it was great fun to drive even though it didn't have much power, handled okay and got 37 mpg no matter how I drove it. Basically, it was just a Toyota Carolla but I liked it.
 
1979 Dodge Power Wagon 4X4. 360cid/AT/w '68 four barrel and intake form a RoadRunner and Doug Thorley pipes. That thing would climb a tree but not pass a gas station. New baby= I needed aircon and soemthing cheaper to commute in, no money to have 2 cars.

Recent- 2008 Ford F150 4X4 Lariat- nicest car I will ever own. Just could'nt justify 500 per month- divorce sucks.

Cars I wish my uncles had sold me instead of someone else- 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger with 340cid HP engine. 1966 SS Chevelle 396cid.

Bill
 
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'46 Willys Jeep CJ2A, bought with my paper route earnings for $400.00. Skipped school when it snowed to go out and play. Sold back to the original owner for $400.00 after I cracked the head.
 
My most favourite car ever was stolen. I was never really attached to any car (although I love cars and driving), but this one had a special place in my heart.

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Fastest car I ever owned. Close to 400 HP, 0-60 < 5 secs, 4-wheel drive, DSG gearbox, and still drive 4 people + luggage around in every comfort imaginable.
And the sound of the engine would put tears in your eyes.
 
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE, 13B motor. Not terribly fast, but handled well and was fun to drive. I wished I still had it.
 
Brules1 said:
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE, 13B motor. Not terribly fast, but handled well and was fun to drive. I wished I still had it.
Click to expand...

I had a '72 RX-2 with a turbo 13B in it. Terribly fast, handled badly but was fun to drive! :o
 
A 1939 Packard Twelve with under 1000 miles could have been mine. Instead, I spent the same $$ on a 1960 red and black Pontiac "Hard Top. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. etc.
 
I had a Alfa Romeo sports car when I got married only two doors so when the baby came along I had to sell it so we could get all the baby gear in the back.
My son is 36 now and I still get a dig in once in a while but he just tells me I should be over it by now:rolleyes:

Richard
 
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